


So Just...

by epiproctan



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 02:38:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4122805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epiproctan/pseuds/epiproctan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoba has a problem. Sei has a solution. It involves pretending to date his own twin brother, but it's okay if it's just pretending, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Just...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhereverYouAre36](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereverYouAre36/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIE!! You're such a wonderful person and a fun friend and I hope you have the most terrific birthday. I also hope you enjoy the cheesy fake boyfriend cliche because that's exactly what I wrote you. 
> 
> This fic totally got out of hand, it was not supposed to be this long.... But enjoy!

“So just…go out with me?”

These were the last words Aoba was expecting out of his twin brother, and they made him choke on the spoonful of cereal he’d just shoved into his mouth. After taking a long draft of water to dislodge the cheerios stuck in his throat and swallowing them down, he looked up at Sei.

“What? What the hell are you saying?” Aoba cried.

“I didn’t mean _actually_ go out with me,” Sei said with a shrug, suddenly but casually seeming to find his reflection in his fork more interesting than Aoba. “I just meant if those guys are bothering you so much, the quickest way to get rid of them is to pretend you’re already seeing someone. It’d be pretty easy to pretend you’re dating me.”

Aoba supposed he should have expected a suggestion like this from his brother, but in reality he hadn’t expected a suggestion at all. He’d just sat down for his breakfast across from him and started complaining for the sake of complaining about how annoying it was going to be to face those guys again today. “Those guys,” of course, being the group of friends that he’d made on campus this year, though he wasn’t so sure if friends was the word they wanted to use to describe their individual relationships with him. The problem laid in the fact that Aoba Seragaki was not only blissfully single but also attractive, considerate, and fun to be around. Basically, he was being actively and irritatingly pursued. And though they were all cool people who Aoba liked hanging out with, none of them were appealing to him right now.

“You can’t date your twin brother,” Aoba huffed, engaging in attempt number two to eat his cereal. He knew that was true because he’d logicked himself through that one before. Once. When he was drunk.

“Do they _know_ I’m your twin brother?” Sei asked smoothly, and even without glancing up Aoba could hear the slight grin in his voice. “Have they ever met me?”

Aoba managed to swallow his whole mouthful without incident this time. “No, but…they know I have a twin.”

“We look different enough that they wouldn’t be able to tell it was me, I think.”

Frowning into his bowl, Aoba swirled the cereal around with his spoon. It wasn’t a _bad_ idea exactly, just kind of weird. Pretend or not, dating your twin brother was just gross. Something about this wasn’t really sitting quite right with him, and he didn’t know how to begin addressing that.

“It would be so simple,” Sei went on, leaning back in his chair. His face rarely wore an expression of anything but open serenity, and it was no different now, even talking about something as bizarre as this. “You tell them you have a boyfriend. Introduce them to me to give the story some credibility. Bring me up from time to time, tell a story about a made-up date, say how in love with me you are. They’ll back right off.”

Aoba examined Sei for some sign that he was joking, but he couldn’t find any. “Do you really think that would work?” he asked.

But Sei nodded. “You’ve been complaining about these guys for a little while, Aoba,” he said, sympathy clear in his face. “Let me help my little brother out, okay?”

And that is how Aoba Seragaki began dating his twin brother.

* * *

 

Everything started off well.

Aoba casually mentioned a partner at lunch one day, in the context of, “Sorry, I can’t go, I’m hanging out with my boyfriend.” He hadn’t really wanted to go to Black Needle with everyone again anyway, not this close to his midterms, and it seemed like a good time to slide that into their heads.

The results were instantaneous. Koujaku dropped his fork in his lap.

“You have a boyfriend?” asked Clear, and Aoba could hear the way he failed to cover his disappointment with incredulity.

“Yeah,” Aoba replied casually, trying not to feel bad. These guys did all probably have genuine feelings, after all. It might not have been his fault if he didn’t return them, but he didn’t want them to be sad about it. “We started dating a little while back.”

“Hmph,” said Noiz, and Aoba knew before he even said his next sentence that he wasn’t buying it. Noiz knew everything. “Who is he?”

“His name is Sei,” Aoba said evenly.

Noiz was on his phone instantly, and though this wasn’t unusual as he was almost always on his phone, Aoba had a feeling he was opening his Facebook app and tracking down this “Sei” guy. Luckily Sei didn’t have a Facebook or things could get messy, but Aoba supposed there were one or two pictures of them together posted recently that could serve well as proof that he existed.

He found them almost immediately.

“Is that him?” Noiz asked, all but shoving the phone in Aoba’s face. It was a picture from almost a month ago, a selfie that Aoba had taken when he and Sei had brought Ren to the dog park. Luckily the caption only read “Hanging out with my two best friends!” rather than something indicating their familial relation, but Aoba knew he would have to go home and scour his photos later tonight just in case. 

“Yeah,” Aoba replied, doing his best to sound relaxed about this.

From there, Clear was clamoring to see and Koujaku was getting up to stand over their shoulders and even Mink was leaning in with some interest. There was a “Wow,” and a “He’s cute!” and even a grunt of what sounded like vague approval before Aoba was able to comfortably steer the conversation in a different direction. He already _knew_ Sei was attractive and that he would be quite the catch, and he didn’t need to hear that from his friends. Plus the more time they spent on this subject, the more Aoba would have to lie, and he didn’t want that. He just wanted to be left in peace, honestly.

* * *

 

Things didn’t go nearly as smoothly the second time.

This time Aoba mainly wanted to get out of going to the bar because between his part-time job and midterm season, he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a week, and his ever-present headache was slowly progressing into a killer migraine. But when he tried again to use the “hanging out with my boyfriend” excuse (which wasn’t a lie, if Sei was actually considered his boyfriend, as he had promised Sei that they could curl up on the couch and watch a movie together that evening), it was Koujaku who said, “Well, why don’t you invite him along?”

Which is exactly how Aoba ended up bringing his twin brother posing as his boyfriend to a bar.

“This is exciting,” Sei told him as they walked together. “I’ve never met any of your friends, Aoba.”

Aoba didn’t think this was exciting. Aoba thought this was weird, and kind of scary. He was too deep into this lie for the fact that Sei wasn’t actually his boyfriend but rather his brother to come out now, and one poorly-phrased sentence or slip of the tongue would be enough to ruin him. To have to introduce Sei to everyone not as his twin but as his boyfriend was, in itself, a feat that would take all his strength and creativity.

But the expression on Sei’s face was calmly optimistic, and Aoba had to wonder if maybe he should have invited Sei to things like this more often. Sei didn’t really go out too much, and though he still had friends of his own from high school, when he lived with their uncle Toue before moving in with Aoba and their grandmother, sometimes he wondered if he should be spending more time with him.

It would be pretty nice, Aoba thought, if it were normal for the two of them to go out to places like bars and dinners together all the time.

And anyway, having Sei along, whether as a brother or a fake boyfriend, would probably do wonders for warding off untoward advances from his friends.

As they arrived at the bar, Aoba felt something brush against his fingers, and nearly flinched away from the spark that seemed to travel up his arm until he realized that it was just Sei, taking his hand in his own. They exchanged glances, a comfortable smile that to an outsider might have looked like a couple taking a moment to gaze into each other’s eyes, but was really just Sei affirming that this was the right thing to do. Of course it was, because boyfriends held each other’s hands, and Sei and Aoba had to look like boyfriends. It was a little strange, Aoba thought, the feel of Sei’s slender fingers slotted between his own, Sei’s warm palm against his clammy hand, Sei’s gentle thumb rubbing soothingly across his skin. It made his heart do a funny little squeeze, which Aoba attributed to the fact that he hadn’t held hands with anyone in quite some time, of course.

And then they were inside suddenly, and Koujaku was waving them over to where the gang was sitting. There were about a thousand, “Oh, so _this_ is Sei!”s and “It’s nice to meet you”s and “Wow, he’s even hotter in person”s before Aoba was able to find himself comfortably seated. And Sei was wonderful and charming and somehow half in his lap.

Not a single one of them missed this, especially not Aoba, who did what would have felt natural with any other person and put his arm around Sei’s waist. But this was his brother whose thigh was pressed up against his and whose knee was knocking against his own, whose slim body was in his hold and whose warmth was seeping through the clothes that separated them and onto his own skin. They must look close like this, _really_ close, like the kind of couple who sleeps in each other’s beds more often than not and goes grocery shopping together and has warm and slow make out sessions every time they turn on a movie to watch.

Well, Sei and Aoba had shared a bed before, more than once, when their nightmares got bad. And they did go grocery shopping together all the time. And when they watched movies sometimes Sei would lean against Aoba and tuck his head into his neck and when he was sure Sei had drifted off, as he often did, Aoba would leans down and bury his nose in his hair, just a little, to catch a whiff of the sweet shampoo he used. But that was pretty different from making out, obviously. And there was no way Aoba and Sei had ever made out, since they were brothers and all.

Aoba was so fixated on this that the next thing he realized was that Sei was very graciously offering to buy the next round of drinks and hopping up out of Aoba’s hold. As soon as he was gone, everyone’s eyes were on Aoba.

“What’s he like in bed?” was the first thing out of Noiz’s mouth, flat and offhanded as though he was asking about the wallpaper.

Aoba’s mouth fell open and a little bit of the French fry he’d been eating tumbled out. _In bed?_ He’d never considered what having sex with Sei would be like, for very obvious reasons. He should have known questions like this would pop up if he told people they were dating, he thought as he hurried to clean up after himself.

“What?” Noiz said, frowning at him. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had sex with him before.”

“Brat, you can’t just ask about other people’s sex lives like that,” Koujaku scolded, but it was half-hearted and from the way that he glanced at Aoba, Aoba knew that he was waiting for the answer too.

“That’s personal,” Aoba stammered, red-faced. Even if this wasn’t about his brother, that was a weird thing to talk about, right? He’d be exactly this flustered if someone had asked him that about anyone. But since it was his twin they were talking about, after all, it was even more strange.

Since it was Sei, Sei with his silky hair and big dark eyes that seemed to devour Aoba whole, and his cute voice and his cool, comforting hands….

“But you _have_ had sex with him?” Clear asked, eyes alight with excitement somehow. Why was this so interesting to them? But even Mink was leaning forward a little bit, obviously listening in.

“I mean—….” Aoba stumbled, trying to figure out what the right answer was to this one. Boyfriends have sex normally, don’t they? Physicality was a part of most romantic relationships. It was just strange to think of…him and Sei, tangled up in bed together, their bodies bare and skin sliding against each other, touching and kissing and moving, connected….

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” Clear pressed. “You can tell us!”

“Tell you what?”

Suddenly Sei was there, setting a pitcher of beer and glasses down in front of them, smiling with his usual angelic smile.

“We were wondering how the sex was,” Noiz said bluntly before Aoba had a chance to cut in and salvage the situation.

“Whose? Mine and Aoba’s?” Sei’s smile only grew bigger as he sat, pressing up against Aoba. “It’s great. Aoba’s adorable in bed, and loud.”

If Aoba wasn’t so preoccupied with expressing his own shock, turning towards Sei with wide eyes, he would have caught the fascinated expressions on his friends’ faces as they looked in awe at the man who had (supposedly) bedded the beautiful Aoba Seragaki. But Aoba was blind to these, as he was too busy wondering how it was that Sei could so smoothly say something like that about his own brother.

He continued to wonder this as the night progressed, as his friends became more and more inebriated, as even Sei’s laughs got just a little bit louder. Aoba himself stayed away from the alcohol, because he was still waiting for that awful moment when this would all fall to shambles. When he would accidentally address Sei as his brother, or offhandedly mention going home to their shared house and their grandmother, and his friends would learn that he had used his own brother as a fake boyfriend. Naturally, they’d either be mad or disgusted or both, and Aoba didn’t want to have to deal with that, or the ensuing embarrassment and disgust at himself, that he’d actually chosen to lie about having a boyfriend and used his own brother to support the story that he’d built.

Despite this, though, Aoba did eventually allow himself to be eased into having a good time. Sei got along famously with his friends, joking and laughing with them like he’d known them for years instead of the minutes that piled quickly into hours. Sei was always like that though, so pleasant and kindhearted that his presence, while generally quiet and unobtrusive, seemed to make the lights in a room shine a little brighter and smiles last a little longer. Aoba was actually having fun here, with Sei by his side.

That is, until Koujaku leaned over the table and semi-drunkenly slurred, “You know, you two are all over each other but I haven’t seen you kiss yet.”

It seemed like the words were barely out of his mouth before Clear was chanting, “Kiss, kiss, kiss!” at them, and Noiz was watching with his sharp green eyes, and Aoba’s anxiety was suddenly burning in his stomach like he had drank the tequila Koujaku had offered him, even though he hadn’t.

“We’re in a public—,” Aoba began to protest, but that was before he felt Sei’s fingers slide along his cheek, easing his face towards him.

Suddenly Aoba was looking into Sei’s eyes, huge and dark and all-consuming before him, and he was close, _too close_. He could feel Sei’s alcohol-tinged breath ghosting across his lips and see the individual hairs of his eyelashes, thick and black, and that was the last thing he remembered before his eyelids slid shut automatically and his heart jumped into overdrive.  

They got a hoot or two from Koujaku and Clear, but Aoba was more focused on Sei’s lips, unbearably smooth and soft, and the way he moved, gentle and slow, and the heat of his hand on his cheek and the way it raised the hairs on the back of his neck. And how lonely his lips felt when Sei pulled back after only a second and how the space made his nerve endings tingle with an electricity that didn’t feel like it was of this world but of someplace private and fantastical.

And how it was his brother who just kissed him, his brother, his brother, _his brother_ , and he’d actually kind of _enjoyed it_ ….

“Sei,” he scolded, quietly, because his head felt a little bit light and his thoughts a little fuzzy.

But Sei was grinning, unrepentant, and turned back towards the others like he hadn’t just pressed his mouth to his own twin brother’s.

Aoba couldn’t tell if it was just him or his imagination or if everyone was a little bit more subdued after that. Aoba certainly was at least, because the more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t believe that Sei had kissed him. Even worse, he had talked about sex with him, albeit fabricated sex, and with such a straight face. Sex in general was the kind of topic so personal that it made Aoba squirm a little bit, but with his own brother? A lie or not, the idea of him and Sei and sex shouldn’t all even be in the same thought, let alone spoken about. That just put weird images in his head. Like how the narrow waist he had his arm around right now would look bared for him, or the way Sei’s lips would feel on other parts of his body, now that he knew how soft and gentle they were.

Which was just weird. Weird, weird, _weird_. No one should ever have thoughts like that about their own twin brother, and it wasn’t like Aoba was, but _if_ he had been, it would have been completely Sei’s fault for saying something like that. For even suggesting, no matter how fictionally, that he would ever touch Aoba’s cock, or that Aoba would touch his, or maybe that they’d put theirs together and touch both at the same time. Or for Sei to be inside of him…or would it be him inside of Sei, with Sei’s slender torso and pink-tinted skin laid out under him? Maybe they would take turns, and when they weren’t doing that, Sei would get on his knees and blink up at him from under those thick black eyelashes with his doe-like dark eyes and part his lips just enough for the glistening pink of his tongue to show, as he leaned forward towards Aoba’s pelvis and—

Sei shifted against Aoba’s side, and Aoba was shaken back to reality with a jolt of realization that not only did his face feel warm, but he was growing an impressive bulge in the front of his jeans.

“We have to go,” he said, suddenly standing. Sei found himself displaced and make a cute little noise of distress in the back of his throat, which really did not help matters at all, though he rose obediently as Aoba shifted his bag around to disguise his problem.

“Already?” Koujaku asked, frowning. “It’s still pretty early.”

“Yeah,” Aoba said, taking a deep breath and looking away. “Gotta get up early tomorrow and do stuff…you know….”

“It was nice meeting you all,” Sei interrupted politely, and the enthusiastic responses he got was enough to cover Aoba composing himself so that he could smile and say goodbye to his friends.

Stepping outside, Aoba let go of the breath he hadn’t been aware that he’d been holding, barely even noticing that Sei was still attached to his arm until they were halfway down the street.

“That was fun,” Sei giggled.

“Yeah,” Aoba agreed, because he couldn’t in all fairness contradict that. It _had_ been a good time, until it got uncomfortable. “But _Sei_.” His voice grew sharp as his blush crept up into his cheeks again. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Done what?”

Aoba frowned, wondering if his twin was being serious or not. “Kissed me!”

“Hm?” Sei laughed, airy and bright. Aoba was momentarily stunned out of his irritation by the way Sei’s face shone pale and phantasmal in the harsh light of the streetlamp, his smile all sorts of wondrous. “That? Oh, come on, Aoba. It was a kiss.”

“But you’re my _brother_.”

Sei turned his eyes on Aoba, and they were so infinite that Aoba couldn’t look away. “So? If I actually had a boyfriend even half as cute as you I would want to kiss him _all_ the time.”

Somehow this didn’t make Aoba feel any better about the situation, especially when he started thinking about Sei having a boyfriend. Sei had never really dated very extensively before, as far as Aoba knew, despite being very attractive and having a fantastic personality. The idea of him getting a boyfriend was pretty foreign to Aoba, but also very uncomfortable somehow.

“They would’ve thought it was weird if I refused to kiss you,” Sei said, reading the expression on Aoba’s face. “I’m sorry it made you uncomfortable. I won’t do it again.”

“I—…,” Aoba started, but realized he didn’t quite know what to say.

Instead he stayed quiet for the rest of the way home, feeling Sei’s warmth against him, listening to the gentle lilt of Sei’s voice.

* * *

 

Enough time went by so that Aoba only thought of that night again in passing. It did occasionally rise to the front of his mind, the kiss and Sei’s comment about how his demeanor in bed (how did Sei _know_ that, anyway?), and how he had reacted to it all at the end of the night. Of course, if any guy thinks about sex something like that is bound to happen, so he tried not to dwell on it. It had nothing to do with Sei, it was just that he hadn’t gotten any in awhile. That was it. And that was also probably why he found himself looking at Sei sometimes and wondering what it would be like to really trace his fingers over his skin, or for his lips to feel that tender pressure of Sei’s again. Or what it would be like to take him out on dates and see his kind smile not as a brother but as a lover. But those weren’t thoughts that should be in his head, so he always swept them aside and ignored them.

Aoba took Sei out a few more times. Sometimes his friends would ask about him, so Aoba would bring him along, grinning and holding his hand. One time Aoba even brought Sei to the diner late on a Friday night, making it look like they were on a casual date, and since _everyone_ went to the diner late on a Friday night, of course Koujaku showed up halfway through their dinner with a beautiful lady on his arm. He waved at Aoba and Sei and greeted them enthusiastically, and Aoba felt a twinge of triumph when he noticed the way Koujaku’s eyes swept over and past him in a way that they never had before. This was actually working.

Not to mention that he enjoyed dates with Sei, actually. Once he got past the whole thing about holding his own brother’s hand, or being the butt of sexual jokes involving him and his own brother, or the strange and unbothered way Sei was able to lean in and give him a peck on the cheek from time to time, it was kind of enjoyable. Obviously Aoba felt comfortable around Sei, since they spent so much time together after all. Though it was also fun to spend time with him doing things different from what they normally did, in a capacity other than the familial one they often shared.

Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to actually date Sei. Not him himself, of course, since you can’t date your brother. But for someone else to have experiences like this. To get to buy him ice cream and see his whole face light up as he tasted those first licks of his favorite flavor. To feel his warm hand comfortable lodged against his palm. To have him curled up in his arms night after night, his chest gently expanding and contracting with his breathing. Aoba knew that someday someone would be lucky enough to have those experiences time and time again. Aoba couldn’t help but be touched by something unpleasant roiling in his stomach when he thought of that, but he did want Sei to be happy one day with someone who could love him. Sei deserved that, at least. He deserved someone who would take him out on dates like this for real. And though Sei seemed constantly thrilled to be “dating” Aoba as he was, Aoba hoped that one day he could truly experience this kind of relationship. 

For the time being, Aoba was certain that the danger was gone. His friends didn’t seem so aggressive about pursuing him anymore, and he and Sei had avoided any hint of brotherly relations between them.

Everything was fine. That is, until it wasn’t.

It was a weekend, and a well-deserved one at that. Aoba had finally finished his composition project for his music class and he had been looking forward to a day of not worrying about schoolwork for once. Saturday afternoon found him and Sei and Tae at the grocery store stocking up for the next week, and, as usual, he and Sei were sent to grab the bread while Tae went to pick out the meat.

“I just don’t think he—oh, hello!” Sei said, and it took Aoba a moment to realize the reason that he interrupted his own story was because there was someone behind him he was speaking to.

Aoba whirled around to see not just Koujaku, but also Clear, and Noiz, and Mink turn the corner from the next aisle and come into view.

“Aoba!” Koujaku greeted warmly. “And Sei. It’s been awhile.”

“How domestic,” Noiz cut in before any greetings could be returned, his eyes darting from the bag of bread Aoba was holding in his frozen hands to the cart in between the two of them.

“What are you guys doing here?” Sei asked brightly.

“We’re picking up alcohol for the party tonight!” Clear sang, waving the handles of vodka he was holding in each hand in the air. “Are you two coming?”

Aoba opened his mouth to respond, but as he was about to speak his voice was drowned out.

“You useless grandsons!”

Aoba’s stomach dropped.

Tae abruptly appeared from behind Aoba’s group of friends, a large package of raw chicken in one hand and mouth already open and scolding. Everyone turned to look at her, and though he was aware of Sei slightly shaking his head next to him, apparently their grandmother wasn’t.

“Aoba, don’t just stand there holding the bread like some idiot! Put it in the cart and get the next thing on the list. Have you picked up your brother’s prescription yet?”

Aoba shrank back a little, mind blank, dropping the loaf of bread into the shopping cart as he was directed. “No, I—”

“And Sei, what are you doing letting him dawdle like this? A pair of good-for-nothing twins, the both of you. Go to the pharmacy before I leave you two behind!”

With that, Tae turned on her heel and went in the opposite direction, leaving Aoba with what felt like a hole in his lungs. It started burning outwards, simmering along under his skin until it crawled up his face. And he knew that as his friends turned to look at him again that there was no saving this situation. He was absolutely screwed, and absolutely mortified.

“Twins?” said Mink simply.

“She meant, as in….” Aoba scrambled for words, but he couldn’t even look at them, his eyes finding the floor. “Because we’re always together, we’re like twins….”

But, to Aoba’s surprise, Koujaku just laughed.

“Aoba, you don’t have to lie to us.”

He did though. And he had, though he shouldn’t have, because now he was caught. They’d gotten carried away in their work of fiction and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

Aoba’s hands clenched into fists, his gaze still averted. He hadn’t been this embarrassed since the time he was in middle school and a group of girls had walked in on him changing after he’d accidentally walked into the girls’ locker room instead of the boys’. They were probably going to hate him now, think he was absolutely disgusting for kissing his brother, think he was weird for pretending his brother was his boyfriend in the first place. He was going to lose all the friends he’d made at school because of this. Because he just couldn’t date any of them and had had to date his brother instead.

 “We knew the whole time,” Koujaku continued.

Aoba looked up at him. “…what?”

Noiz nodded, looking kind of bored. “It doesn’t take too much digging to figure it out.”

“Aoba, I’ve known you since elementary school,” Koujaku said. “Even if I’d never met Sei, did you think I wouldn’t realize who he was?”

 Aoba blinked at them. They knew? The whole time? He hadn’t thought his face could get any redder but here it was, feeling feverish. He dug frantically through his mind for some justification, for some reasoning behind doing this that would save him, but he found nothing, nothing that would make pretending to date your own brother seem _reasonable at all_ …

“It was my idea.”

Sei had stepped forward between them, his face carefully blank.

“Please don’t think any less of Aoba because of this, he was just doing me a favor,” Sei went on. “I wanted to know what it was like to have a boyfriend, and I wanted to meet Aoba’s friends, so….”

“I could show you what it’s like to have a boyfriend!” Clear chirped thoughtfully.

Sei giggled. “Thank you, Clear. But I’m okay now.” He glanced back at Aoba, who was watching on, immobile. “Anyway, I’m sorry about all this.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Noiz shrugged. “It was interesting.”

Koujaku nodded. “It was kind of funny to test how far you two would go for the act.”

A part of Aoba felt relieved, and another part still felt overwhelmingly embarrassed despite the reassurances, and it added together to form an awkward anxious swirling mess in his stomach. He thought he might puke.

“Anyway, you guys should probably get going before your grandma comes back,” Koujaku laughed, like absolutely nothing at all had just happened, and started walking in the direction of the check-out counters. The others followed, giving waves and nods of goodbye. “See you two at the party tonight!”

Aoba didn’t have to say it out loud, but he was pretty sure Sei understood that they probably weren’t going to the party.

* * *

 

At around 6 pm, Sei came into Aoba’s room without knocking and sat on the edge of his bed. Aoba had been napping for a few hours already, if napping actually consisted of blasting music through his headphones while staring at the ceiling and thinking about how humiliated he was. When Sei came in, he paused the song he was listening to, but didn’t move any farther.

There was silence for a moment. From where Aoba was laying he couldn’t see Sei’s face, but could see the posture of his back, the way his shoulders sloped downwards a little bit.

“I’m sorry,” Sei said.

Aoba sat up and leaned back against the wall, tucking his knees in to his chest, before patting the bed next to him. Sei crawled over beside him, though he stayed a comfortable distance away. Aoba supposed this was right. They’d had enough physical contact lately, he guessed.

He sighed, long and weary. “Don’t be sorry.” A pause, and then he tacked on quickly, “It was fun.”

“I thought so too,” Sei whispered, and then perked up. “Your friends are very understanding, though. They’re good people.”

“I know,” said Aoba.

It was another moment of silence before Sei slumped over onto Aoba’s shoulder. Aoba couldn’t say that he minded. This was normal for them, to support each other, whether as brothers or boyfriends. Sei was probably just as tired as he was, maybe even a little embarrassed, too. And even though this had been his idea in the first place, Aoba really couldn’t bring himself to blame him. It had been an interesting experience, and the time that he had gotten to spend with Sei was irreplaceable to him. And he was glad that now that it was all over, Sei could still come sit with him, still lean on him, just as he always did.

“So I guess…,” Aoba started, breathing in the scent of his brother’s hair, “now that they know, we don’t have to pretend to date anymore.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Sei was all quiet warmth, and when he spoke again it was a barely audible whisper. “We don’t have to stop though.”

Aoba couldn’t be sure that he had heard what he thought he heard. “What?”

“Nothing,” Sei replied, the same way that you would breathe out a sigh.

Aoba debated within himself for awhile. He thought about the thing he thought he’d heard and the feelings he was battling inside of him right now. And all the implications that went along with all of those things, and what they meant for him, and what they meant for Sei. But if Aoba had learned anything at all these past few weeks, it was that he sucked at lying, and he was tired of doing that anyway.

“I wouldn’t mind,” he said.

Sei stiffened. “You…?”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Aoba looked away. Anywhere but at Sei, at the beautiful creature using his shoulder as a pillow currently. He wasn’t sure where he was drawing the courage for this from, but he knew it would vanish if he looked at him. “If we kept pretending to date, I mean.”

There was a long, painful silence. “I think we should stop.”

“Oh.” As if Aoba hadn’t been humiliated enough today, this was the kick while he was down. Not just a kick. A full-strength punt with a boot in the stomach. “Ah, um, I only meant—”

 “ _Pretending_ to date, that is,” Sei interrupted quickly.

“What?”

“Aoba….” And the way Sei said his name was so soft, so smooth and wonderful, that Aoba suddenly couldn’t imagine having to give him away to anyone else, ever. “I think we should date for real.”

As strange, weird, _disgusting_ as that was, the answer to that seemed like a no-brainer at this point. Aoba took a deep breath.

* * *

 

The party was packed by the time they got there, Noiz’s huge apartment’s living room practically overflowing with people. Sei made a beeline straight to the kitchen, ogling the rather impressive array of alcohol lined up before grabbing himself a shot and one for Aoba. They took it with Mink, who had happened to wander into the kitchen at that exact moment, and immediately after were greeted by Koujaku, who had heard of their arrival. Despite the fact that they knew he was single, and he knew they knew he was single, neither of them made any sort of move on him, nor did Clear and Noiz when he ran into them. Whether this was because they’d guessed the reason he’d feigned having a boyfriend or because they’d simply gotten used to seeing him as a taken man he didn’t know, but he was glad things had finally worked out this way.

The rules were simple. No hand-holding, no kissing, no doing anything that brothers wouldn’t do. After forcing himself to cling to Sei for so long Aoba thought it’d be easy to let go of him for once. But even in the dim apartment lighting Sei seemed to shine, and the hot flush of possessiveness that built as Sei was hit on by more and more strangers was not easy to ignore. By his third drink Aoba had taken to standing by the wall and watching Sei flashing his friendly smile at everyone.

Including himself. But Aoba got a wink too, in addition to the smile. And then, momentarily, Sei politely broke away from the conversation he was having and sidled up to Aoba, the feathery touch of his fingertips raising goosebumps where it came into contact with Aoba’s arm.

“Let’s go home,” he whispered into his ear.

They’d barely made it into Aoba’s bedroom before Sei’s mouth was covering Aoba’s, almost sloppily in his desperation. It was every bit as delicious as Aoba had remembered, but now with an unrelenting firmness that made him more than a little dizzy. Before he’d realized it, Aoba had been pushed onto the bed, flat on his back, with Sei hovering over him. The anticipation for what was to come made his heart thunder until it was deafening. As inch by inch of Sei’s milky skin was revealed, Aoba had no reservations in his mind about this being what he wanted. He’d finally found the boyfriend that appealed to him.

The way that Sei tugged down his pants and revealed his erection to the open air was so fluid and sexy that Aoba’s protests died on his tongue, and were quickly replaced with bitten-back moans as Sei licked along his shaft before mouthing gently at the head. His eyes were on Aoba’s face the whole time, every bit as dark and dangerously enrapturing as Aoba had imagined they would be. By the time Aoba tangled his fingers in Sei’s hair and pulled him off, afraid he was going to come, his whole body felt like it was on fire. In a much better way than it had earlier.

Sei settled between his legs and prepared him while leaving bite marks over his throat and across his collarbones, and when the third finger went in Aoba was clutching Sei’s arms and telling him to hurry already. Sei complied, and before Aoba knew it, they were connected together in the deepest way possible. With every thrust Aoba could feel himself falling deeper and deeper in love with Sei. Not just as a brother, but as someone whose shaking moans he wanted to hear more of, someone he wanted to touch, someone who he wanted to bring on dates and cuddle with late at night.

Aoba held Sei tight as he came, overwhelmed by the scent and the feel of him, and when Sei was done a few thrusts later they collapsed together, side-by-side, clinging and pulling.

“I love you,” Aoba told him breathlessly, wondering when those words that shifted from the familial to the romantic. It didn’t really matter, not now, but they had.

“So just…go out with me,” Sei laughed, equally breathless. His skin was warm and lovely against Aoba’s.

Aoba was done with thinking and lying and trying to make everything make sense.

“Okay,” he agreed, and pulled Sei in tighter against his chest before drifting off to sleep.


End file.
